In a small group interaction at the USI this afternoon with a Japanese team led by retired Lieutenant General Noboru Yamaguchi, former head of Training and Doctrine-development Command of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces, and presently Director, Center for National Security & Crisis Management, National Defense University of Japan, the Japanese team surprised us with an unvarnished take on the US and China and the kind of apprehesions the latter generates among the Japanese. Among other things, General Yamaguchi, for example, said that the US swings between extremes on China — “panda hugger” to “dragon slayer” and one “cannot put too much weight on US’current policy” whichever it is. Regarding China, he said Japan “does not trust” Beijing’s nuclear ‘No first use’ promises, and that “good economic relations” alone “cannot guarantee peace”. And that countries like India and Japan should work together to “ïnfluence” China into moderating its policy. One of the ways of moderating Chinese assertiveness, the General said, was military cooperation and, curiously, referred in this respect to the use during the Second World War by the Imperial Japanese Forces of “land-based air” to sink two Royal Navy warships near South China Sea!